Critters on the causeway

On November 12, 2025November 17, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Another summer walk along the Dunedin causeway.

I saw a spotted eagle ray as I walked over the bridge. I don’t see them often.

As I crossed under the bridge to get to the other side (safer than crossing this busy road) I paused to watch boats go by and clouds start to form.

Birds are always keeping an eye on the fishermen hoping for a lost bait fish.

It’s common to see a reddish egret here. This one was just walking around and I didn’t have my camera with me so I quickly snapped the above with my phone and kept walking.

I was wishing I had my camera as I noticed the oystercatcher family at the bottom of the bridge. The two in the far left of the bottom picture are juveniles, probably born a few months earlier and the parent was on the far right. A young little blue heron was walking across the seaweed at the bottom of the picture.

I took several videos of them looking for little sea creatures to eat for breakfast.

Still looking for spring birds

On July 26, 2025August 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park in mid-April but not early enough to catch sunrise. I started out on East Beach and found some royal terns looking for love.

It was mating season for the shorebirds and there was a lot of hanky panky going on early that morning. These birds don’t get any privacy. A sandwich tern (on the right) was interrupting the royal terns and got yelled at.

Or maybe they were just playing “leap frog”???

The male terns were bringing in fish to temp the ladies. I think this one was hoping one of these two ladies were going to take the bait.

Not sure what this conversation was about. Was she yelling at him to go get a fish?

This osprey had a big fish for breakfast.

A nanday parakeet sitting pretty.

I was hoping to see something new on the trail but only the usual migrating birds were there this morning: a female Cape May warbler, a black and white warbler, a red eyed vireo and a summer tanager.

I stopped in at the North Beach area and as I walked out on the beach I saw these 2 oystercatchers chasing another one away.

The oystercatcher nest was still there and Mom (she is banded with AE bands) was just coming back to the nest after chasing that interloper away with Dad. I could see that she was sitting on 3 eggs. They should hatch soon.

A red breasted merganser was shaking off the water.

A pelican fly by.

Watching the rain coming at me

On March 10, 2025April 10, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

It was a yucky day on Black Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. I usually avoid shopping areas on this day and decided since it wasn’t nice outside I would head to a small beach in between Tampa and St. Pete. As soon as I got there I could see skimmers (in the first shot) and oystercatchers (in the 2nd shot) cruising by.

The sandbar was visible since it was low tide and I could barely make out the pelicans, gulls and terns enjoying the quiet over there.

A Forster’s tern was taking a bath.

The little beach was full of royal terns with a few laughing gulls and other terns.

A cute Wilson’s plover has a snack.

Ring billed gulls only spend the winters here and I’ve seen just a few at every beach.

I was actually at the beach to look for this guy. The saltmarsh sparrow was a lifer for me. This was the first time I had heard of one being in the area but there had been a few coming through years earlier. He had been spotted a few days earlier and was still there on that rainy morning. They hide out in marsh areas with high vegetation and I waited a while before seeing him pop out for a few minutes.

I could see the rain moving across the bay and heading for me. On a sunny day this little beach off Gandy bridge would be packed and would have made the sparrow harder to find since he would have been hiding farther away in the bushes.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

Fun birds at the marina

On October 5, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I never expected to see juvenile oystercatchers at the Dunedin marina. I was out for a walk in late June and was glad I had my camera in the car. The above were almost fully grown. They still had a little black tip on their beaks and their backs feathers were still pale gray. Although I shouldn’t be too surprised since I have seen a pair on the nearby causeway pretty regularly. They must have found some secret place to nest because this area is very populated.

One parent was nearby and was showing the young ones how to look for food along the oyster beds around the jetti in front of the marina. They did find a few morsels. The other adult that was with them stayed farther away and I couldn’t get them all in the same shot.

Twins hanging out together.

Eventually they all took off together towards the causeway.

While watching the oystercatchers a reddish egret flies by.

The purple martins were still there and the babies were almost grown and learning to fly. At some point in in early July they all left until next spring.

AE and Archie have triplets!

On August 24, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I was out at Fort Desoto Park with a few other photographers early on a Monday morning looking for oystercatcher babies. We didn’t find them in the roped off lagoon area where they had been seen for a few days before. As we got farther to the north tip of the beach we saw an adult fly onto the beach in an area with reeds growing.

We stood there for a few minutes looking into the grassy area and saw them. Triplets! They were buzzing around the area quickly and it was hard keeping up with them. We were all standing quietly across the beach so these are all super cropped up. They aren’t quite as sharp as I would have liked and I was wishing that I had lugged my heavy 500mm lens up there but I wasn’t sure how far we would have to walk so I had brought my lighter 100mm – 400mm lens instead.

The parents were busy bringing in food for them. Three mouths is a lot to feed. The tiniest one finally got a bite and would not let them get it from him.

A little sibling rivalry going on.

AE (named after her red bands on her legs) is the Mom. She was banded as a chick in Georgia and showed up here in the area in 2017 and has stayed since then. Her mate has been named Archie by the local photogs. They have had chicks for the last 2 years. In July of 2022 I didn’t get down to see them until the babies were much older. You can see that post here. They had 3 more babies last spring but I did not make it down there to see them so this year I was able to get them early.

Archie was bringing in more food. Archie spent most of the morning flying in with food while Mom watched the little ones. They eventually plopped down in the tall grass to nap so I headed back down the beach. Because this is a busy area of the beach, this little grassy area was roped off later that day. They stayed here for a few days before heading back to the lagoon.

A morning walk at Fort Desoto Park

On May 20, 2024June 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

It was too early for Spring migration in mid-March but I wanted to take a walk out on the beach at Fort Desoto. I went straight out to the north beach area. I stopped half way and took the above. The first is looking back towards the parking lot and the second is looking north to the tip where I was headed.

There wasn’t a lot of shorebirds on the beach but I did see a few snowy plovers. These little shorebirds are state designated “Threatened”. This is the only place I’ve seen them and not very often although I’ve heard there are some on the beaches in Sarasota.

This little piping plover was across the lagoon and I didn’t notice his missing feet until I was editing the pictures and cropped this up.

Oystercatchers flying by.

After walking the beach I headed over to the east beach trail for a quick walk. No little birds but the nanday parakeets were acting their usual crazy selves. This couple kept getting interrupted but finally had a little alone time.

An osprey takes off and flies right by me.

I always stop at the long gulf pier before leaving and this time there were dolphins swimming close to the pier.

You can really see the scars on the above’s back and fin.

There were 2 female red breasted mergansers taking a bath right at the beginning of the pier. Not sure if it’s really a bath since they spend most of their time in water but they seemed to be cleaning up after a feeding.

The usual things at Fort Desoto

On December 28, 2023December 27, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

In mid-October I headed back down to Fort Desoto Park. After a short walk at the north beach and seeing the usual shorebirds there I headed over to the fishing pier. I found the oystercatcher couple that usually hangs out on the little beach area next to the pier. One of them had found a tasty meal.

The couple was busy feeding and seemed to have a lot of success.

A little sanderling looking around in the slick rocks.

This snowy egret was hanging off one of the big rocks and was trying to snag some bait fish as the water brought the fish closer in the waves. He wasn’t having much success.

Another one was posing for me on the pier.

A great blue heron strutting around.

A royal tern with a snack and an osprey fly overhead.

A manatee swam under the pier. It was so close I took the above with my phone.

Looking over at the lighthouse on Egmont Key.

Rush hour traffic on the water.

Some shots with my phone of sunrise when I first got to the park.

Another flamingo attempt.

On December 18, 2023April 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

At the beginning of October I headed out to Fort Desoto to again, to look for flamingos. I had heard there were several at the North beach lagoon the day before. I got to the park right when it opened and made a quick stop at the East Beach turnaround for a few sunrise shots. I took the above with my camera. The sun was already up and barely peeking out.

I should have skipped the sunrise and gone straight to the North beach lagoon. When I got out to the beach I could see the tiny pink specks far north and had a long walk to get out there to get closer. There were already a few people out there getting some shots of the 3 flamingos feeding. I was barely halfway into my 15-20 minute walk up the beach when I saw flashes of pink take flight. All 3 flamingos took off away from the beach and flew over the trees and were gone. I managed to fire off a few shots as they headed in the opposite direction. I was bummed. They were not seen for days after that.

It was okay that the flamingos left. I was still at the park early and there were tons of birds still around. Both a sanderling and a dowitcher were doing a high step.

I found part of the oystercatcher family. There was one parent and two juveniles (the juveniles don’t have yellow eyes yet and the beak tip is still black). One of the juveniles was banded as a baby with red bands so we’ll be able to see how long he stays around the park.

I drove through the boat ramp parking lot hoping to spot the flamingos there and noticed this barge that looked like it had crab trap equipment on it. I’ve never seen a set up like this one. The anhinga and pelican were making good use of it.

I had to stop and take a picture of this cool bug outside the bathrooms. I’ve never seen this bug before. After doing some googling it’s an antlion lapwing which are common in central Florida. It was sitting out in the open and might make for a tasty meal for a bird.

A view of the newly built bay fishing pier from the end of the pier. The park demolished the old one and the pretty yellow bait fish store that was on the pier. Now there is just a big shelter in it’s place on the pier.

The sun was high up by the time I stopped at the bay pier.

The view from the bay pier looking down at the empty dog beach. The beach is always packed with dogs on the weekends so it was weird to see it so empty this early weekday morning.

Hanging on the causeway

On November 30, 2023November 26, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I was back at one of my favorite spots for a quick walk and a rest.

After my walk I got out my chair and started watching a juvenile yellow crowned night heron trying to eat a crab. He flipped it around for a long time and then swallowed it quickly when I blinked. He has one tiny white fuzz strand still sticking out of his head from his baby fuzz.

It was low tide and the rocks were covered in these tiny black shells. I don’t know if these are baby conch shells or just some type of tiny black shell. Any Florida shell experts out there?

A pair of oystercatchers fly by.

Later I drove over to the other bridge on the causeway, closest to the mainland, and parked to walk on that bridge. I noticed a great egret and a reddish egret standing fairly close to each other. I pulled my camera back out and shot the above.

The great egret started walking towards the reddish egret and the reddish egret started ruffling his feathers like “Don’t come over here. This is my spot”. The great egret kept going and then flew off.

Heading over the bridge.

Clouds were moving in as I walked over the bridge. I noticed an osprey on the top of the gate that closes when the drawbridge has to go up.

Pelicans were sitting along the pilings under the bridge.

As I was getting back in my car I heard some nanday parakeets screaming nearby so out came my camera again and I walked over to the bushes and caught a few of them eating the seed. At this point the clouds were getting dark so I headed home.

Breakfast with Mom and Dad

On September 10, 2022August 11, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It’s not often I walk out on the beach and there are the birds I’m looking for. The oystercatcher Mom and juvenile were feeding right next to a snowy egret along the shoreline at Fort Desoto.

There were two juveniles with the parents and each one stayed close to a parent. The babies were almost as big as the parent but their feathers were not as black, their beaks were not as bright red and they didn’t have those beautiful yellow eyes yet. I sat down on the sand and watched the parents get some icky blob and feed it to the little ones over and over.

It was hard to get the entire family in one shot. I walked back on the beach a bit and was able to get both parents feeding the babies.

A couple of times the babies were able to find their own breakfast. They were watching everything Mom and Dad were doing.

They kept moving along the shoreline, staying busy eating.

At one point another bird came close and one of the parents flew off and chased it away. Here you can see that this one is banded with a red AE. She is the Mom and was banded in Georgia back in 2012. She has been a regular at Fort Desoto since 2017. The babies were born on Shell Key and didn’t make it over to the main beach here until they were old enough to fly over with their parents in early July.